During the infant and
toddler years, your child has been
developing many vision skills and has
been learning how to see. In the
preschool years this process continues
as your child develops visually guided
eye-hand-body coordination, fine motor
skills and the visual motor skills
necessary to learn to read.

As a parent, you should watch for signs
that may indicate a vision development
problem, including a short attention
span for the child's age, difficulty
with eye-hand-body coordination in ball
play and bike riding or avoidance of
coloring and puzzles and other detailed
activities.

There are everyday things that you can
do at home to help your preschooler's
vision develop as it should.

These activities include reading aloud
to your child and letting him or her see
what you are reading. Provide your child
a chalkboard, finger paints and
different shaped blocks and show your
child how to use them in imaginative
play. Provide safe opportunities to use
playground equipment like a jungle gym
and balance beam and allow them time for
interacting with other children and for
playing independently.

By age three, your
child should have a thorough eye examination to make sure your
preschooler's vision is developing
properly and there is no evidence of eye
disease. If needed, your doctor can
prescribe treatment including glasses
and/or vision therapy to correct a
vision development problem.

Tips to make your child's
optometric examination a
positive experience:

Make an
appointment early in the day
and allow about one hour.

Talk about
the examination in advance
and encourage your child's
questions.

Explain the
examination in your child's
terms, comparing the E chart
to apuzzle and the
instruments to tiny
flashlights.

Unless recommended
otherwise, your child's next eye
examination should be at age five. By
comparing test results of the two
examinations, your eye doctor can tell
how well your child's vision is
developing for the next major step into
the school years.

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities. As of October 16, 2016, regulations require most optometry practices to prominently display their non-discrimination policy at their physical location, on their website homepage, and on all significant communications and publications, all of which must include taglines, in the 15 most prevalent non-English languages in the state, stating the non-discrimination policy of the practice.